After ninety-nine online romances, I finally met my ex in person when school started.

"Clang—"

Fu Xinghe's sturdy wooden stick slammed into the dusty cement ground with a dull thud.

The cold beam of the phone's flashlight flickered in mid-air before finally settling on Zhu Xunchuan's face. The light and shadow sculpted the man's angular profile and illuminated the two women standing very close to him.

One of them was Gu Qinghan. Black stockings, a trench coat, and gold-rimmed glasses that exuded her usual aloofness.

The other is Wen Yiqing. She wore a khaki haute couture trench coat, and her eyes and brows exuded an undisguised arrogance.

Fu Xinghe stood at the corner of the stairs, his breath almost stopped.

She glanced down at herself. The hem of her pale white Suzhou-embroidered trench coat was stained with black mud from the low wall, her palms were scraped, her hair was disheveled, and she looked utterly disheveled.

For him, she abandoned the upbringing ingrained in her family for over twenty years, scaled the walls of the abandoned school, and groped her way up step by step into the eerie and terrifying dark building.

As it turned out, the man she had been so worried about was not in any danger at all. Instead, he was enjoying the night breeze, with women on either side of him.

A surge of intense sorrow and immense grievance welled up within me.

Fu Xinghe bit his lower lip tightly, unable to suppress the redness in his eyes, and his gaze toward Zhu Xunchuan was icy cold.

"Professor Fu... Professor Fu?" Gu Qinghan broke the silence first.

She recognized the person. A specially appointed professor in the Chinese Department of Peking University, and also the daughter of the Fu family, a top political family in Beijing. Although Gu Qinghan came from the Gu family, the Gu family was involved in the cultural and public security systems. Facing the daughter of a real municipal party secretary, her aura would instinctively fluctuate.

What's more, they've all bumped into each other at a guy's "rendezvous".

Upon hearing the greeting, Fu Xinghe instantly regained her composure. She immediately realized how out of line she was being; the pride of the city committee's daughter absolutely forbade her from displaying any embarrassment of jealousy in front of her freshman counselor.

She took a deep breath and quickly tucked the stray hairs behind her ear. Her back straightened, and her eyes regained the intellectual and aloof air she usually possessed on the podium.

"Teacher Gu," Fu Xinghe nodded slightly, his voice calm and even, "What are you doing here with your students so late?"

She took the initiative and questioned the person in charge, adopting the demeanor of a school leader.

Gu Qinghan was taken aback by the question. She couldn't very well say that she had come to check up on the freshmen because she was jealous.

Just as Gu Qinghan was pondering how to cover up his lie, Fu Xinghe offered his own excuse first.

"I just happened to be passing by the West Campus." Fu Xinghe stared straight ahead, not even glancing at Zhu Xunchuan, his tone extremely stiff. "I'm currently working on a project about the early Soviet-style architecture of Peking University, so I just stopped by to take a look at the structure."

This reason is utterly lame. Who would wear a silk dress and climb over a wall into an abandoned building at midnight to investigate its architecture?

Gu Qinghan didn't expose her, as she herself was in a similar predicament.

But Wen Yiqing wasn't buying it.

She didn't know any Professor Fu; she only knew that she had just managed to snatch a spot in Zhu Xunchuan's arms in the darkness, and now a woman even more beautiful than Gu Qinghan had appeared, her eyes filled with unyielding resentment as she looked at Zhu Xunchuan.

Wen Yiqing sneered and deliberately moved half an inch closer to Zhu Xunchuan.

"Professor Fu has truly unique taste in architectural research." Wen Yiqing's gaze swept over the wooden stick on the ground, her tone full of sarcasm. "Did you bring that broken stick to knock down bricks, or for self-defense?"

Fu Xinghe's eyes turned cold, and an aura of authority from someone who had long held a high position pressed directly at Wen Yiqing.

The air in the corridor seemed to freeze. The cool scent of roses, the crispness of fir, and the faint, top-quality sandalwood on Fu Xinghe's body—three distinct perfume scents collided violently in the confined space.

Three women, three identities. One is a cold and aloof tutor from a scholarly family, another is a proud heiress from a fresh food conglomerate, and the third is a powerful eldest daughter of a prestigious family.

The atmosphere was tense and ready to fight.

Zhu Xun Chuan knew the time was right. If they continued to stand their ground, neither of them would be able to leave this abandoned building tonight.

He loosened his hands from his pockets, took long strides, and walked straight toward Fu Xinghe.

Gu Qinghan and Wen Yiqing watched him walk forward, remaining silent in tacit agreement.

Zhu Xunchuan stopped in front of Fu Xinghe. The two were very close.

Fu Xinghe looked at the face before her, a face she both hated and longed for, her chest heaving slightly. She wanted to step back, to maintain the distance befitting a specially appointed professor.

But Zhu Xun Chuan gave her no room to hide.

He reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder with a natural yet domineering motion. With a flick of his fingers, he brushed away a small patch of lime that had stuck to the shoulder of her trench coat.

Then, Zhu Xun Chuan's palm slid down and grasped her slightly cold wrist. His thumb brushed against the red scratch on her palm from when she climbed over the wall.

Fu Xinghe's body trembled violently, and he subconsciously tried to pull his hand back.

Zhu Xun Chuan didn't let go; instead, he took half a step forward. His tall figure blocked the view of Gu Qinghan and Wen Yiqing behind him, creating an absolutely private blind spot for Fu Xinghe.

He lowered his head slightly, his lips almost touching Fu Xinghe's earlobe.

"My longing for you is piercing to the bone..." Zhu Xun Chuan lowered his voice, speaking in a low tone that only the two of them could hear, "Why did you actually come?"

Just eight words.

Yesterday morning in Exhibition Hall Zero of the National Museum, that blush-inducing deduction and the utter descent into depravity in front of the rosewood bookcase instantly shattered Fu Xinghe's rationality like an electric current.

My longing for you is so deep, do you even know?

This is their most secret and unconventional code word.

Fu Xinghe's previously erected cold defenses crumbled instantly under the man's hot breath and precise words. All her grievances and jealousy were completely dispelled by these words of love, which contained both teasing and tenderness, turning into a strong sense of shyness and helplessness.

She glared at Zhu Xun Chuan with red eyes, and her previously tense shoulders relaxed.

"You bastard." She mouthed the curse silently, letting Zhu Xun Chuan hold her wrist, and stopped struggling.

Zhu Xun Chuan's lips curled into a roguish smile.

He turned around and faced Gu Qinghan and Wen Yiqing again. At this moment, he naturally took over the supreme command of this team.

"Alright, everyone's here." Zhu Xun Chuan said calmly, as if nothing had happened. "We've already turned the second floor, let's keep going up. Since this is a recruitment test, we have to complete the whole process."

Gu Qinghan frowned: "It's not safe up there."

"With me here, what's there to be afraid of?" Zhu Xun Chuan said, took Fu Xing He's hand, and stepped onto the stairs leading to the fourth floor.

Gu Qinghan looked at their clasped hands, gritted her teeth, but because of the pain in her ankle, she could only suppress her displeasure and follow. Wen Yiqing was not to be outdone, quickly passing Gu Qinghan and sticking close to Zhu Xunchuan's other side.

Inside the abandoned school building, an extremely eerie yet highly dramatic scene unfolded.

Zhu Xunchuan walked in the very center. To his left was the aloof and noble daughter of the municipal party committee, to his right was the proud and beautiful heiress of a wealthy family, and behind him followed a cold and aloof counselor.

Three stunningly beautiful women, who would normally turn heads wherever they walked on campus, were now all keeping their brilliance hidden and obediently following a freshman.

Various expensive high heels and ankle boots clattered on the concrete steps, creating a rhythmic sound. They transformed this gloomy, dilapidated building into a high-fashion runway.

Surrounded by various forces yet able to control the overall situation with ease, Zhu Xun Chuan felt an indescribable sense of exhilaration.

This is the true art of balancing things.

The group quickly arrived at the fourth floor.

Compared to the three floors below, the air on the fourth floor was much more polluted. The classroom doors on both sides of the corridor had all been removed, leaving only dark door frames.

Wen Yiqing felt a little uneasy as she walked, but in order to save face in front of the other two women, she pretended to be calm and took out a black military walkie-talkie from her trench coat pocket.

This is the communication device she sent to the two male club members on the rooftop before tonight's test.

"Hey? Rooftop team, reply received." Wen Yiqing pressed the call button, her voice echoing in the empty corridor.

There was no immediate response on the walkie-talkie.

There was only a slight crackling sound of electricity.

Wen Yiqing frowned, pressed the button again, and said in a more serious tone, "Zhang Yang? Liu Feng? Stop playing dead, where is the testing progress?"

The corridor was so quiet that even the breathing of a few people could be clearly heard.

Fu Xinghe subconsciously moved closer to Zhu Xunchuan's side, and Gu Qinghan also stopped and stared intently at the walkie-talkie.

Two seconds later.

A very low noise suddenly came from the walkie-talkie's speaker.

That wasn't a boy's reply.

Instead, it was a light, intermittent laugh.

"Giggle...giggle..."

Her voice was sharp and had a childish quality, as if she hadn't yet gone through puberty.

It was the eerie laughter of a little girl.